Mohamed bin Hammam targets Europe to help him unseat Sepp Blatter

The deadline for standing as a Fifa presidential candidate is set for 31 March. If Mohamed bin Hammam or anyone else formally declares they are running, that person must try to do in little more than two months what no one has done in 13 years: oust Sepp Blatter.

A short campaign does not necessarily disadvantage the challenger. Indeed, Bin Hammam would be using a tactic Blatter employed so effectively to secure his own election way back in 1998.

Blatter did not declare his own candidacy for the June elections until the end of March that year. Bin Hammam, who has told the Guardian he will declare his hand within 10 days, would have roughly two weeks more